Pentagon Email System Shuts Down for 11 Days After Russian Cyber Attack

The Joint Chiefs of Staff email was shut down for the past 11 days all thanks to Russians, reports claim. Russia, US cyber cold war seems to have no end…

Russia hacks into Pentagon email system

According to investigators, Russian hackers responsible for cyber attacks launched against the White House and the State Department last year have carried out this attack against Pentagon. Being termed as a major “sophisticated cyberattack,” Pentagon’s Joint staff email system was shut down by the military for nearly two weeks. Hackers broke into the unclassified email networks of Joint staff by sending emails that looked legitimate but turned out to be containing malicious code or spear phishing attempts. Earlier in the year, President Obama’s unclassified emails were also compromised in similar attacks.

While there is no confirmation if the attack was commissioned by the Russian government, officials claim it was “clearly the work of a state actor,” as it was highly sophisticated. This cyber attack against the Pentagon was coordinated using social media accounts, officials stated.

It appears the cyberattack relied on some kind of automated system that rapidly gathered massive amounts of data and within a minute distributed all the information to thousands of accounts on the Internet. The officials also report the suspected Russian hackers coordinated the sophisticated cyberassault via encrypted accounts on social media.

The publication also shares that no classified information was compromised during the attack as only the unclassified email system was hacked leading to accounts and emails belonging to that system being leaked. According to official numbers, intrusion by Russian hackers affected some 4,000 military and civilian accounts working for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Hackers from Russia attacked the email system on July 25, immediately after which the entire Joint Staff unclassified email system was shut down by the military. It is expected to be back up online before the end of this week, reports NBC.